Wendy

Where the name comes from

• English (literary coinage)
  From a child's way of saying "friend"
  "Fwendy-wendy," a toddler's way of saying "friendy-wendy"
  Most experts trace the name to the Scottish author J. M. Barrie. He gave it to Wendy Darling in his play Peter Pan, first staged in 1904. He brought it back in his 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. Barrie took it from Margaret Henley (1888–1894), the young daughter of his friend, the poet W. E. Henley. She called him "Fwendy-wendy." Margaret died of meningitis at age 5, and the name honors her. Before the play, Wendy was very rare as a girl's name.
• Welsh (popular belief)
  Popular meaning: "fair" or "blessed," as a short form of Gwendolyn
  Gwendolyn / Gwendoline
  Many baby-name books call Wendy a nickname for Gwendolyn. Name scholar Cleveland Evans says there is no good evidence that Wendy was used this way before Barrie's play. Treat this as a popular meaning, not the proven origin.
• Old English (place name and surname)
  "Island at a river bend" (place name only)
  Wendy, a small village in Cambridgeshire, England
  Wendy is also an English place name and a surname. This place-name meaning belongs to the village. It is not the source of the girl's name made famous by Peter Pan.

Wendy across traditions

• English-language literature and theater. Wendy Darling is the girl who flies to Neverland with Peter Pan. She looks after the Lost Boys like a mother. The character made the name famous around the world. A "Wendy house," a small playhouse for children, is named after Barrie's books.
• American popular culture. From 1965 to 1976, Wendy was one of the top 40 names for girls born in the US. It was #36 for the whole 1970s decade. In 1969, Dave Thomas named his hamburger chain Wendy's after his daughter, whose nickname was Wendy.

Who carried it

• Margaret Henley (1888–1894): Daughter of the poet W. E. Henley. Her baby-talk name for J. M. Barrie, "Fwendy-wendy," inspired the name Wendy Darling.
• J. M. Barrie (1860–1937): Scottish author of Peter Pan (play, 1904) and Peter and Wendy (novel, 1911). He made Wendy a common name.
• Melinda "Wendy" Thomas (born 1961): Namesake of the Wendy's restaurant chain, founded by her father Dave Thomas in 1969. Her nickname came from a childhood way of saying Melinda.

Forms in other languages

Wendi, Wendie

Wendy in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.